Do you know the VPN you’re using could leak your personal data?

According to CyberNews, the three databases contain the data of 21 million people, leaked by SuperVPN, GeckoVPN, and ChatVPN. At the time of this writing, SuperVPN had more than 100 million downloads on Google Play, GeckoVPN more than a million, and ChatVPN more than 50,000.

The data for sale includes e-mail addresses and passwords (hashed for the first two services and in plaintext for ChatVPN), as well as users’ full names and information about country and payments. One of the databases additionally contains device serial numbers and IDs. Users’ IP addresses were not leaked.

The seller admitted to taking advantage of a configuration error that left the VPN providers’ servers accessible using default usernames and passwords.

This isn’t SuperVPN’s first turn in the headlines for the wrong reasons. In July 2020, researchers at VPNMentor discovered 1.2TB of logs leaked from several VPN providers, including SuperVPN. The current incident represents the first time for the two other apps, GeckoVPN and ChatVPN — at least, as far as we or the public is aware. Another reputable source, Have I Been Pwned?, confirms the incident.

Are VPNs Safe?

Virtual private networking is a fundamental technology for safe Internet surfing, but not all VPNs are equally strong. As a starting point, look for players that are not new to the market — the longer the company has been in business, the more reliable it probably is. 

Out of many available VPN protocols, some protocols are more secure than others and some are faster than others. Try to avoid PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) and look instead to solutions that are based on OpenVPN. Typically, VPN providers offer several exit nodes in various countries, but in some cases, the exit node is chosen automatically. Should you care? That depends on what you actually need the VPN for. If you want to ensure privacy and security while using free Wi-Fi in some café, any exit node will do.

There are dozens of VPN providers, some offering free solutions, others charging a significant amount of money, and still more in between. Which one is right for you? Choose wisely!

Direct Publication Source: https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/supervpn-geckovpn-chatvopn-leak/39029/